Reading of the Percy Jackson Books: The Lightning Thief
by DracoLover14
Summary: Percy Jackson go back in time to read the Percy Jackson Books. Thalia/Nico Percy/Annabeth Jason/Piper Grover/OC Clarisse/Chris Leo/OC Humor, Family, and Romance maybe others.. (Just to let you know there is no Roman camp. I am going to make Jason a Greek demigod.- Just to let you know.)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I know there is a few of these, but I really wanted to do this! Please tell me what you think! **

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I was just sitting on the beach at Camp Half-Blood when Chiron came running at me.

"What's wrong Chiron?" I asked. He normally doesn't bother me when I am near the water. It's the only place I find peace.

"Nothing's wrong. Annabeth, Grover, Clarisse, Thalia, Jason, Piper, Nico, and Leo want to see you in the big house." He said. He gave me this look that said 'you need to use your power to get there.' I knew what he was talking about. I just wasn't quite good at it yet.

"You'll be fine." He said. Then gave me an encouraging. I sighed. I closed my eyes and concentrated. I focused on the little things. Then I turned to mist. I flowed through camp. Weird I know. Then I metalized on the porch. I had to grab on to the railing. I told you, I wasn't quite good at it yet. I saw them all staring at me.

"What?" I asked.

"What did you just do?" Annabeth asked.

"I've been practicing." I said with a slight blush on my cheeks.

"That was so cool!" Leo said while bouncing out of his seat.

"So, what did you all need?" I asked changing the subject.

"We found these books and they looked pretty good. But, we aren't reading them here." Annabeth said. She looked kind of wary. "We are going to the past to read these on Olympus." I just looked at her.

"Just to read book that we probably can't even read in the past?" I askede.

"They're in ancient Greek so they are pretty easy to read. Were the only ones I think that's going to be there." She said.

I sighed. "What are they about?" I asked. I knew no matter what I was going. Annabeth looked at the rest of them and they all had the same look.

"You." Annabeth whispered. I froze. I didn't know what to make of it. How am I supposed to react when I find out there is books about me?

"Percy? You ok man?" Grover asked.

"You killed him." Jason said.

"No she didn't I would felt it." Nico said.

"Not literally Death Breath." Thalia said and Nico seemed to blush.

"Love the face Prissy!" Clarisse was laughing. Piper and Leo didn't know what to say. Leo was just trying not to laugh at me like Clarisse did.

"I'm fine." I said. "We should get going. How are we going to get there?"

"Yea, we should get going. And are parents know so they are going to send us back in time to read with the past them." Piper said

"Ok. When should that be?" I asked

"Now." Annabeth said. We saw a glowing light so we all turned are heads. When we looked we saw someone I was hoping I wouldn't have to see so soon, Athena.

"Are you all ready to go?" She asked. We all nodded are heads and Annabeth grabbed the books. "We better get going then." With that she transported them to Olympus. They got there to see all the gods already sitting down. Luckily they were in human form so they had smaller thrones. I noticed the curiosity in my dad's eyes. I guess I am supposed to still be a baby here. I guess.

"Who are you?" Zeus asked.

"We are from the future Lord Zeus. Let us introduce are selves and why we are here." Annabeth said. Zeus nodded for us to continue.

"I'm Annabeth Chase, Daughter of Athena, and Heroine of Olympus."

"I'm Thalia Grace, Daughter of Zeus, and Heroine of Olympus."

"I'm Nico di'Angelo, Son of Hades, Hero of Olympus."

"I'm Piper McLean, Daughter of Aphrodite."

"No Heroine at the end of yours?" Aphrodite asked.

"Not yet." I said.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"I'm Jason Grace, Son of Jupiter. No Hero at the end of my name yet either."

"I'm Grover Underwood, a satyr, and Hero of Olympus."

"How does a satyr have a Heroine status and one of my children don't?" Zeus bellowed.

"Maybe Grover did something to earn it!" I yelled back. All the gods just stared at me.

"I'm Leo, Son of Hephaestus, and I don't a Hero title yet either."

"I have a question. If all of you are hero's who is the main hero?" Poseidon asked.

"They are about to introduce themselves Lord Poseidon." Annabeth answered. Thinking that her seaweed brain was about to introduce himself after Clarisse.

"I'm Clarisse, Daughter of Ares, and Heroine of Olympus." She said.

"Now for you, the one who yelled at me." Zeus said. I couldn't help but smirk.

"I'm Peruses Jackson; please call me Percy, Son of Poseidon, I guess you could say main Hero of Olympus." I looked over at my dad and saw his proud face.

"Three kids of the big 3. I thought I would never see it again." Artimis mumbled.

"Why are you here daughter?" Athena asked.

"We found these books and they are in ancient Greek which is a plus! And we thought you all would want to know considering your future selves already know." I knew she would kept on going and going until she ended up telling about our entire lives.

"Sounds interesting," Apollo said. "How many are there?" He asked.

"There's 5 Lord Apollo." Annabeth answered.

"Well let's start! I'm curious!" Hermes said from his throne. Hera made some couches for us and we all sat down. I sat next to the arm, Annabeth sat next to me, Thalia sat next to her, Nico beside Thalia. Piper, Jason, and Leo sat on there on couch and Grover sat in a seat by himself.

"Who wants to start?" Annabeth asked.

"I will." Athena said. Annabeth handed her the book and she opened it to the first page.

"**I Accidently Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher" **She read out loud.

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**A/N: What did you think? Please Review!**


	2. Chapter 2

"**A/N: The first chapter was in first person but this one is not. I found it easier to write this way. Sorry! Here is the next chapter. Tell me what you think!**

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**I Accidently Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher" **Athena read out.

"How can you accidently vaporize your pre-algebra teacher?" Thalia asked Percy

"Listen and find out." He said.

**Look I didn't want to be a half-blood. **

"Who does?" All of the demigods said. All of the gods looked at them with sadness in their eyes.

**If your reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

"That's actually pretty good advice." Athena said.

"Thanks." Percy said. Even though, it sounded more like a question in his head.

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways. If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened. But, if you start to recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before **_**they**_** sense it too, and they'll come for you. Don't say I didn't warn you. **

"You're a little bit dramatic Prissy." Clarisse said.

"Do you want to gurgle water again Clarisse?" Percy asked with a smirk. He noticed the gods and some of the demigods looked confused. And saw Annabeth trying to hold in a laugh.

"What does that mean?" Leo asked.

"You'll see." He smirked.

**My name is Percy Jackson. I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York. Am I a troubled kid?**

"Yes!" All the demigods said except Annabeth. She just looked at Percy looking at his reaction.

**Yeah. You could say that. **Everyone started laughing.

"Could you all stop interrupting? And it's rude to laugh." Annabeth said sticking up for him. _This is what made her the best girlfriend. _Percy wrapped his arm around Annabeth and she leaned back_. _Which didn't go unnoticed by Aphrodite.

"He agreed with it!" Thalia said.

"Yeah he did!" Nico said. They looked at each other and turned away.

**I could start anywhere in my short miserable life to prove it, but things started going bad last May, when our six grade class took a field trip to Manhattan—twenty-eight mental-case kids on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff. **

"Sounds cool." Annabeth said. Wonder how she is going to react to what I said about it. Percy thought.

"Sounds like torture." Poseidon said. Percy laughed. Everyone looked at him funny.

"**I know—it sounds like torture." **Athena glared at him, Annabeth rolled her eyes, and everyone else laughed.

"Like father like son." Thalia said.

**Most Yancy field trips were. But Mr. Brunner, are Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes. Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee.**

"Sounds like Chiron." Nico said.

**You wouldn't think he would be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"You went to sleep in class?" Athena asked. _Who could that? But then again he is fish face's son._

"Well… Yeah. I got bored." Percy said and everyone laughed except Annabeth and Athena. They just glared. "Sorry?" They rolled their eyes.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least I hoped I wouldn't get in trouble. **

"Like that's going to happen." Everyone who knew Percy said. Poseidon looked a little pale.

"You ok dad?" Percy asked. He just simply nodded.

**Boy, was I wrong. **

He got even paler.

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga Battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. **

Everyone chuckled.

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind the scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that… Well you get the idea. **

"Man, I wanted to hear more." Apollo said.

"I did too." Hermes said.

"Will you tell us some more at lunch?" They both looked at Percy.

"I guess."

"Yes!" They said and high-fived each other.

"Idiots." Artemis said.

**This trip I was determined to be good. **

"Yea right." The demigods said. Percy tensed. He wouldn't admit, but he could only handle so much of their teasing. Annabeth noticing Percy tense looked up, but he was looking off into space.

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwhich.**

Piper and Aphrodite looked disgusted. Piper would never admit this, but everyone could see it, staying with the Aphrodite kids have rubbed off on her.

"I hated her." Percy said. "I am already going to say this. I am sorry if you do not like my thoughts. So sorry in advance."

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled.**

"I see why you said sorry in advance." Grover mumbled.

"I said sorry!" Percy said. He didn't know people were going to know his thoughts.

**He had Hr**

**He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs.**

"Yeah it's called satyrism." Nico and Thalia said. They both looked down, but you could still see the blush they both had.

**He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it's enchilada day in the cafeteria. **

"Way to blow cover, Goat Boy." Thalia said. Grover blushed.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and knew I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension of anything bad, embarrassing, or mildly entertaining happened on this trip. **

"**I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

"Yes! Fight!" Ares said. Everyone looked at him. "What? This book is boring." Percy, Annabeth, and Grover smirked.

"The twins would hate to be on that trip then." Nico said.

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's ok. I like peanut butter." He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch. **

"**That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat. **

"Aw." Ares said.

"**You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You'll know who'll get blamed if anything happens." Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

Poseidon didn't look to good. But, no one said anything.

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour. **

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery. **

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"A lot longer." Annabeth said.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a **_**stele**_**, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

Percy shivered. Which Poseidon seen. He had a look of worry, but was trying to not freak out. They were only on the fourth page!

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown. **

_Why is my fury there?_ Hades thought

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right". **

"Seriously Grover? How did you not blow your cover sooner?" Thalia asked. Grover just looked down and blushed.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you **_**shut up?**_**"**

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

"Of course it did. You have the worst of luck." Nico said.

"I know." Percy said. That didn't help Poseidon.

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

"**Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

"**Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because…"**

"**Well…" I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and—"**

"god? He was not a god!" Zeus yelled.

"I'm sure Chiron will correct him. Right?" Annabeth said and turned to Percy. He nodded and Zeus calmed down.

"**God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

"**Titan," I corrected myself. "And…he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**

"**Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

Piper and Aphrodite looked a little green.

"—**and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

"You know Perce, the biggest war known to mankind and you some it up in a few sentences." Grover said. Percy just shrugged.

**Some snickers from the group.**

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

"**And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

"BUSTED!" Hermes and Apollo yelled.

"Shut up!" Artemis said.

"You know you love us sis." She glared at him and he backed down.

"**Busted," Grover muttered.**

"**Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

"Considering he's a horse." Piper said.

"I didn't know he was a horse at the time." Percy said.

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

"**I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

Hermes, Apollo's, and Leo's stomachs growled.

"I'm hungry." They all three said.

"After this chapter we will eat lunch. You all came about 11:30. And if people keep interrupting it will be about 12 maybe 12:15 when we get this first chapter done." Athena said and the boys shut-uped.

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses. **

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Bruner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let go—intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything. **

"You're very observant." Athena said and continued reading.

"**You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

"**About the Titans?"**

"**About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

"**Oh."**

"**What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be**_** as good**_**; he expected me to be **_**better**_**. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

"That does sound fun. Except the miss spelling part. And you have never made above a C-?" Athena asked. No one answered.

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lighting strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. **

"That's hurting the animals!" Artemis yelled.

**Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from **_**that**_** school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

"You're not a loser." Annabeth said. Percy smiled and pulled her closer. This time Poseidon noticed too.

"**Detention?" Grover asked.**

"**Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

"Nice Grover, nice." Nico said. Him and Thalia were sitting really close. It was like they didn't notice.

**I didn't have much appetite, so I let him take it. **

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd sent me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

"Wimp." Ares said. Then he got a face full of water. "Which one of you did that?!" He asked. He saw Poseidon and Percy laughing. "You both did it!"

"Guilty!" They said and everyone started laughing.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized café table.**

_Hmmm… _Hephaestus and Leo thought.

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

"**Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos. **

Aphrodite and Piper looked like they were going to throw up. Jason wrapped his arm around Piper.

"Are you ok?" He asked. She nodded. She had a small smile on her face. Aphrodite was looking at them and Percy and Annabeth.

_Young love.. _She thought and smiled.

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

"A wave? Do you compare _everything _to water?" Nico asked. Percy shrugged.

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

"Hint one." The gods and some of the demigods looked confused at what Grover said.

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

"—**the water—"**

"—**like it grabbed her—"**

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"**

"**I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

"Never guess your punishment. It's a bad idea." Hermes said.

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

"See."

"**Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

"**Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. **_**I**_** pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

"**I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

"**But—"**

"**You—**_**will—**_**stay—here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

"**It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

"**Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "**_**Now.**_**"**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. **

"You don't want to be at the receiving end at one of those." Thalia, Nico, and Clarisse mumbled.

"Why?" Demeter asked.

"It's scary." Thalia said. "He's more powerful than me!"

"More like creepy. Believe me. I have seen creepy." Nico said.

"Yes, Death Breath, I guess you would know creepy." Thalia said and smiled. Nico rolled his eyes.

_Another couple in the making! _Aphrodite thought. She was smiling real wide.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

"Hint two."

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

"Of course not." Poseidon said. He looked like he was about to explode.

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

"Hint three."

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it…**

"**You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

"**We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on **_**Tom Sawyer**_** from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

"You know there isn't anything wrong with reading a book." Annabeth said.

"Try reading in English instead of Greek." Percy said.

"He's got a point there." Thalia said.

"**Well?" she demanded.**

"**Ma'am, I don't…"**

"**Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

"YOU SENT A FURY AFTER MY SON?" Poseidon yelled.

"I don't know. This is in the future!" Hades said.

"That is the only thing that is keeping you safe." He said coldly. Hades shrunk back in fear.

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

"**What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

"Wimp." Ares said and got hit by water again.

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. **_**Hisss!**_

"You're a natural." Jason said.

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

Everyone laughed.

"Magic mushrooms seaweed brain?" Annabeth asked. Her blond hair in her face. He reached up and put it behind her ear.

"Hey, I didn't know what I was yet. So, I thought I was going crazy." He leant down and kissed her nose.

"Awwww!" Aphrodite said.

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

"Sadly no."

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

"Who?" Poseidon asked.

**I said, "Who?"**

Everyone started laughing.

"**Our **_**teacher**_**. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about. **

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first,**

"He need's lying lessons." Hermes said.

**and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

"**Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved. **

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

"**Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

"**The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"Well, he sure knows how to make someone feel stupid." Thalia said.

"Time for lunch then we will read again." Athena said and everyone went out of the room. Expect two.

* * *

**A/N: Which two? Review who you think! **


	3. Break

**A/N: I am so sorry this took forever to post! I got stuck. Please forgive me! Thank you for the follows and favs and Reviews! Tell me what you think! :)**

* * *

While everyone went to lunch Nico and Thalia stayed in the throne room. They were both sitting quite close, but neither of them noticed.

"Thalia, can I ask you something?" Nico asked. He was jumpy inside. Thalia got hopeful. She liked Nico, she just didn't know if he liked her back.

"Sure." She said.

"Um, well, I like you, a lot. And being around you makes me all giddy. I was wondering if you felt the same way." He asked. He didn't get the answer he thought he was going to get. Instead of being laughed at or yelled at he felt a soft pair of lips on his. At once he knew it was Thalia.

"I'm going to take that you like me too?" He asked pulling away a little.

She sighed, "Of course I have to explain it to you. Of course Death Breath!" She leaned in and kissed him again. He couldn't help the smile that was creeping up on his lips.

Percy and Annabeth sat beside each other talking.

"Where's Nico and Thalia?" Percy asked then they heard laughter. They looked down to the end of the table. Hermes and Apollo were talking about Percy.

"Percy! Tell us some more about why you where kicked out of school." Hermes said.

Percy sighed. "Let me think." Hermes and Apollo nodded.

"Well, in first grade, there was this one kid that kept bothering me. We were coming back inside and we was getting a drink of water. I wanted the water to just explode and it did. It went everywhere. I was the only one not wet, but at the time I thought it was because I moved out of the way in time. Thing was everyone blamed me. And it didn't help being right beside the water fountain." He said. "I don't remember any more."

Apollo and Hermes just looked at him and started laughing. Well, it doesn't take much to entertain them anyway.

"Can we go read again?" Annabeth asked. _My wise girl,_ Percy thought. _Always wanting to read._

"Yes, we can." Athena said. Everyone except Percy and Annabeth got up and went to the throne room. Thalia and Nico were both a light red and hair was ruffled. Aphrodite knew those 2 were kissing. She knew they loved each other. Now all the young couples were together.

"Now where are Percy and Annabeth?" Thalia asked.

"I want to try something. But, only if you agree with it." Percy said.

"What is it?" Annabeth asked.

"You know how I can mist travel?" He asked and she nodded. "I want to try to do that with you too. But, you can say no." He said. He was giving her the option.

"I won't get separated or anything?" She asked and he shook his head. "Ok. What do I do?"

"Wrap your arms around my neck." She did as she was told. He wrapped his arms around her waist. "Now, think of turning into water and moving that water to the throne room. I'll be able to tell if you are." He said.

"How can you tell?" Annabeth asked. It amazed her he could even do this at all.

"I just will. Now think about that." And she did.

Percy took a deep breath. And thought of turning both of them into mist. Making them flow through the air to the throne room. He knew Annabeth was thinking of the same thing. He could feel it working. Then they were both mist moving to the throne room.

They all felt a change in the air. Then they saw water flying through the air. Then it stopped and two people appeared, Percy and Annabeth. Poseidon was looking at his son with a proud look on his face, Athena was turning colors. It went from red to purple to blue back to red then back normal.

"How did you do that?" All the demigods asked again.

"Been practicing, like I said before." Percy said and sat down with Annabeth.

"Well, who is reading next?" Athena asked.

"I will." Annabeth said and Athena handed her the book.

* * *

**Review please! :) Also, who do you think I should bring into the story?**


	4. Chapter 3

**Three Old Ladies knit the Socks of Death** Annabeth read out.

"Socks of death. Nico, those sound good for you!" Thalia said. And looked at him with amusement and love in her eyes.

"Haha." He looked backed at her with a mock glare. Everyone else was just staring at them.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty- four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr-a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip-had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas. Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

It got so I almost believed them-Mrs. Dodds had never existed.

Almost.

"Bet it was Grover." Hermes said.

"Well, we already said Grover couldn't lie so I'm not going to bet against you." Apollo said.

**But Grover couldn't fool me. When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

**Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.**

"No duh, pip squeak." Ares said.

"I would love to see someone beat you Ares." Athena said. Annabeth, Percy, and Grover smirked.

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

"Your dreams suck." All the demigods said.

Percy sighed "I know"

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

"What are you two fighting about now?" All the gods asked Poseidon and Zeus. They both shrugged.

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot.**

Annabeth and Athena started laughing.

"What?" Percy asked.

"Nothing." And Annabeth continued reading.

**I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

"Wimp" Ares said and got blasted out of his seat. Everyone looked at Poseidon and he raised his hands. Then everyone looked at Percy and saw Annabeth trying to calm him down.

"You dare to blast me out of my seat!" Ares belled. Percy turned to mist and got in Ares face.

"One more word Ares and it will be a lot worse." He said in a slow, cold voice. Clarisse had to pull Percy away before he did something.

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties. **

"But, Paul doesn't play poker." Nico said.

"Not Paul." Grover said. And he looked at Percy. He looked murderous. But Grover wasn't sure if that was about Ares or Gabe. It might have been both.

**And yet... There were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

"Wow, thanks. Considering I am older that is just sad. I'm weak." Grover said and looked down.

"Grover you're not weak. You just have to pretend to be weak." Thalia said.

**I'd miss Latin class, too-Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room.**

"Percy, you don't throw books! Even if the words are everywhere!" Annabeth said.

"You try reading in English Wise Girl!" Percy said. Annabeth didn't say anything back. They all knew he had a point.

**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one- eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book. **

"That's more like it." Annabeth grumbled.

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "... Worried about Percy, sir. "**

**I froze. **

"Eavesdropper!" **  
**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper,**

"Yeah right!" Nico said. Thalia nodded in agreement.

**but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

"True. I would have listened too." Nico and Thalia said. They were holding hands now.

**I inched closer.**

**"... Alone this summer, " Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too-"**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him, " Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more. "**

All the demigods, except Annabeth, started laughing. Percy was still mad about Ares and the thought of Gabe almost made him cause an earthquake on Olympus. So he didn't notice what was going on.

"Like that's going to ever happen." Thalia said. Nico nodded.

"He did mature!" Annabeth yelled. Everybody looked at her. "If you think about it, after everything that has happened, who took charge? Who made Hermes cabin less crowded? Think about who has matured now." She said and all the demigods looked down. Even she knew he was a little immature but he was the one who takes charge when bad things happen. And she wasn't going to let anyone say stuff about her seaweed brain.

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice dead-line- "**

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can. "**

**"Sir, he saw her... . "**

**"His imagination, " Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that. "**

**"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again. " Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean. "**

"Stop blaming yourself Grover!" Thalia and Annabeth said.

**"You haven't failed, Grover, " Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall-"**

Well he isn't going to take that well." Thalia said.

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

"Knew it." She said.

"No one said anything against you." Percy said and Thalia tried to shock him.

"Still got the Achilles curse, don't you?" She asked.

"Yep."

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

"At least he can hide." Hermes said.

**A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muf-fled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

"Suspense." Apollo said.

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing, " he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice. "**

**"Mine neither" Grover said."But I could have sworn ... "**

**"Go back to the dorm, "Mr. Brunner told him."You've got a long day of exams tomorrow. "**

"Do you have to take a lot of tests?" Nico asked.

Grover nodded.

**"Don't remind me."**

"You have a long day of tests tomorrow." They heard and jumped except Percy. They saw three campers with the same up turned eyes and mischievous smiles that made you want to check your pockets.

"Travis, Connor, and Chris, when did you get here?" Annabeth asked.

"A couple of seconds ago. We were bugging Chiron and he sent us here." Travis said.

"What we're doing?" Thalia asked.

"Trying to take that horrible collection of his and hide it." Chris said.

"Well introduce yourselves." Zeus said.

"I'm Traivs,"

"And I'm Connor,"

"Stoll." They said together.

"I'm Chris Rodriguez" He looked over and they nodded.

"Son's Hermes." They said together. After that they sat down. Chris went beside Clarisse and Travis and Connor sat on the floor.

"What's up with Perce?" Travis asked.

"We don't know." Nico said.

"Continue daughter." Athena said.

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

**"Hey, " he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful. " He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just... Tired. "**

"He can just read your emotions." Athena said.

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,**

All the demigods looked at Percy.

"Three hours? How could you stand that?" They asked. He shrugged.

**my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy, " he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... It's for the best. "**

"He's not going to take that good."

**His** **tone****was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips. **

Annabeth glared at this.

"Is someone jealous?" Thalia asked and Annabeth just glared at her.

**mumbled, "Okay, sir. "**

**"I mean ... " Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time. "**

**My eyes stung.**

"Wimp." Ares muttered and got blasted again.

"Next break you're on kid! No one blasts me out of my seat.

"Looks like I just did." Percy said in a cold voice.

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

**"Right, " I said, trembling.**

**"No, no, " Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... You're not normal, Percy. That's noth-ing to be-"**

"Not the best thing to say Chiron." Travis said.

**"Thanks, " I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me.**

**"Percy-"**

**But I was already gone.**

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a fam-ily of nobodies.**

"We aren't nobodies." Zeus said.

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a sum-mer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall. "Oh, " one of the guys said. "That's cool. "**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

"Men." Artemis said but she was starting to realize not all men are the same. Peruses is proving to be different. She thought.

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

"Totally by accident." Clarisse said.

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing ner-vously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

"Bet you scared him half to death!" Connor said.**  
Grover nearly jumped**

Everyone laughed.

**out of his seat. "Wha-what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

**"Oh ... Not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

"So basically everything." Chris said.

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers ... "**

**"Grover-"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ... "**

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar. "His ears turned pink.**

Like they did now.

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

**The card was in fancy script,**

"You need to change it to something they can read easier." Hestia said.

"But it's funny." Mr. D. said.

"You will change it." Zeus said. And Mr. D. nodded.

**which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

**Grover Underwood**

**Keeper**

**Half-Blood Hill**

**Long Island, New York**

**(800) 009-0009**

**"What's Half-"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... Summer address. "**

**My heart sank.**

"Why?" Nico asked. No one answered.

**Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.  
**

**"Okay, " I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion. "**

**He nodded. "Or ... Or if you need me. "**

**"Why would I need you?"**

Thalia reached up to smack the back of Percy's head but then remembered the curse.

"That was harsh." Thalia said.

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

"At least he knows it." Annabeth said.

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you. "**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me.**

"You're a true friend Peruses Jackson." Hestia said.

"Thank you Lady Hestia." He said.

**And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.**

**"Grover, " I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine com-partment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road-no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from pass-ing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

Athena was the first one to guess. Her eyes went and she gasped. She looked over at Percy wondering how was he alive.

Everyone else stared at her. Even Annabeth didn't know what happens. He never told her.

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no cus-tomers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen. **

Now everyone understood.

"How are you alive?" Apollo asked. No one answered.

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

Annabeth thought about that for a minute. Luke had electric blue eyes. Her eye brows furrowed.

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

Poseidon started breathing fast again.

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching. "Grover?" I said. "Hey, man-"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all. "**

"Not time for jokes." Apollo and Hermes said.

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors-gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

**"We're getting on the bus, " he told me. "Come on. "**

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there. "**

"Listen to the satyr!" Poseidon said. He wasn't looking to good.

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back. Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic. Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for-Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

"Only you Perce, would think that at that time." Nico said.

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

And that couldn't have happened to seconds before? Everyone thought.

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

All the gods looked at Poseidon. He was very pale.

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"  
**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

"Much worse." Athena said.

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw. "**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn. "**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost-older.**

Observant. Zeus thought.

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord. " "Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

**"This is not happening, " Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time. "**

**"What last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth. "  
**

**"Grover, " I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

"That would have creeped me out too." The Stoll's said. **  
**

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me. "**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

"Some promise." Grover mumbled but no one heard.

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.  
**

**No answer.  
**

**"Grover-that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already pick-ing the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"That's the end of the chapter." Annabeth said. "Who wants to read next?"

"I will." Thalia said and took the book and turned to the right page.


End file.
